Recommended Levels for Optimum Challenge?

[AlphaMagnum]

I've heard a great deal about how the game is initially quite challenging, but has the difficulty drop off as you get into Acts II and III, assuming you do every side quest you find along the way.

 

With that in mind, I'm looking to start a discussion on the "recommended" levels for each major story or side quest, to ensure that we are adequately challenged for as long as possible.

 

For example:

 

Raedric's Hold @ levels 3-4

Temple of Eothas @ levels 4-5

Caed Nua @ ???

 

Of course there'll be ranges and I'm traveling in a party of 6 to further reduce the experience gain, but of course having 6 warm bodies with their own skillsets is enough to reduce the difficulty of encounters a fair bit.

 

Let's assume a party of 5-6.  Do any of you have suggestions as to when I should be tackling the major quests and areas in the game?

[AlphaMagnum]

I thought I'd bump this since no one's chipped in yet.  I'm hovering around Act II and not sure as to what order I should be doing these quests to maximize challenge and entertainment.  Given that I have 3 story quests and a bunch of side quests, I'd love any advice on the matter.

 

What I've found so far:

 

Blood Legacy is best completed at level 6 or higher.

Cinders of Faith is best left to level 7+

[Nakia]

Od Nua/Enless paths gets harder the deeper you.  I suggest doing a few levels of the dungeon as you level up.  With a full party I think you should be able to do the Stronghold quest at level 4.

[Narla]

 If you don't do the bounties/endless the game's difficulty slowly decreases (except bosses) but it's not so bad. It's really the XP money and loot you get from bounties/endless that upset the difficulty a lot so if you wanna try to have a good challenging game I'd say skip the bounties/endless until you have trouble progressing, then do 1 bounty/endless floor, then try to progress again, then when next having trouble another bounty/endless floor, and so on.

 

 For example, if you clear all zones, complete all side quests, do all available bounties, and clear 6+ floors of endless before stepping into act 2, and you are using a full party, then the rest of the game becomes rather unchallenging outside of bosses, even on the highest difficulty.

Edited May 7, 2015 by Narla

[kaiki]

I found that group composition & difficulty setting to be a stronger factor then what level you are. Also, when you get to around level 6 the difficulty drops and continues to drop till the end of the game. So if you want maximum difficulty with a full group try and skip as many side quests as possible.

Edited May 7, 2015 by kaiki

[chouia]

As said, for difficulty, skipping Endless Path is probably a good idea. I started with Endless Path (I stopped depth 13, where you are blocked), and with all xp and equipment I felt that the game after that was not the same.

[Tigranes]

In terms of XP, don't do any of the bounties, don't do more than half of Od Nua until Act 3. Personally I'd also combine that with IE Mod's 25% extra XP required to level up, when it's updated for 1.05.

 

Other good solutions:

-Don't loot regular weapons and arms, and/or don't use "send to stash" when you loot. 

-Don't rest all the time, try to never go back to town just to get camping supplies - there's usually 2 + one or two that you find in the wilderness/dungeon, so you should never need to go back to rest except for extreme circumstances. 

-Don't take 6 people, take 3 or 4, which still lets you synergise various classes and party members without pew-pewing everything.